This is getting surreal. Last week I wrote at length about the GOP base's anger at Saxby Chambliss and the likelihood of a primary challenge to him in 2014, which has pretty much been assured now thanks to his public break with the Tax Troll over the "fiscal cliff." Until now, potential challengers have included such political notables as members of the Georgia GOP House delegation (especially Rep. Tom Price) and former Georgia Secretary of State/wannabe Planned Parenthood scourge Karen Handel. But now a new name has emerged as a potential challenger and boy is this one a doozy.
Who is it, you may ask? Politico revealed it's none other than our old friend Erick Erickson:
In a 900-word indictment of Sen. Saxby Chambliss, RedState editor and CNN contributor Erick Erickson described the Georgia Republican Tuesday as "waffling around like a dog off its leash for the first time."
Here's Erickson's diatribe against the Georgia Judas. A choice excerpt:
Everyone knows that Saxby meant he was happy to raise taxes. Now, under pressure back home, he is waffling. He covets his seat in Washington and is fearful of being primaried. Georgia has primary run-offs, which means he can be taken out. He cannot bring himself to say he wants to raise revenue through changes in the tax code that will cause taxes to go up, so he dances around. Behind the scenes, we all know he will work to structure a proposal that increases taxes on Americans, but he'll cleverly make sure there are enough votes so he can vote against it. He is active and has been actively complicit with Mark Warner (D,Va) and others on raising taxes.
And later on, it gets more personal:
Saxby Chambliss has been part of the problem and remains part of the problem.
A couple of years ago a mutual friend from Macon went up to see Saxby. There was a tea party rally going on. As our mutual friend sat in the office waiting for Saxby, his staff stood around ridiculing the tea party activists going by as simpletons, uneducated, hicks, and nuts. Chambliss himself has been overheard talking disparagingly of tea party activists in the Capitol Hill Club and elsewhere.
Uh oh. Erick's fee fees are hurt. So what's he going to do about it?
Read on:
So, I manged to catch the first hour of Erick Erickson's show tonight. He led off the show by stating that he has been approached by serious people asking him to consider a primary challenge to Senator Saxby Chambliss. He says he hadn't really been considering it, but will get with his wife and give it "prayerful consideration."
I traded a couple of texts with him and would say this isn't a publicity stunt. Nor has he decided he's running and is being coy about it. It's something he needs to think about. So he will.
Well, as much as Erick the Red is capable of thinking about anything, anyway. I have only two questions:
1. Are we sure these are "serious" people who asked Erickson to run? And.
2. We can't be this lucky, can we? Can we? I thought God has blessed us enough this November, but no, He keeps finding new ways to make us happy. ("Mitt ending up at 47%? Not good enough! Let's find some other way to humiliate the GOP!")
Back to the Politico piece, which notes that Erickson's screed against Chambliss sounded like a "campaign manifesto" and lays out the promise and pitfalls should Erickson take the plunge:
An Erickson primary challenge would certainly make for great political theater. He's won elected office before - he served one term on the Macon City Council - and could complicate Chambliss's re-election bid. But as a leading conservative blogger, radio talk show hose and frequent cable television presence, Erickson's also got a long trail of writing and video that might not be so helpful in a statewide campaign.
That's an understatement. If you though Handel was lugging a ton of baggage behind her, Erickson could rival her on that front.
One things for sure, the Georgia Senate race is going to be a crazy one. I only hope the Democrats make like they did in Indiana this year and are lying in wait to capitalize on a GOP self-destruct move.